The Turkmen necklet captured the attention of nineteenth-century travelers, most famously Edmond O’Donovan, who likened it to a dog collar![2 ]. This necklet exhibits the features of stiff collar, palmettes with terminals, and chains. However, there are significant divergencesfrom the nineteenth-century prototypes. The length of the collar may indicate that it is not original, since necklets generally fell at the level of the clavicle and this example would have sat much farther down. Other differences from earlier examples include a more stylized and horizontal palmette design, more prominent and brightly colored stones, and the introduction of a new decorative technique, hatching.

Layla S. Diba in [Diba 2011]

Footnotes:

2. O’Donovan, Edmond. The Merv Oasis: Travels and Adventures East of the Caspian during the Years 1879–80–81. London, 1882, vol. 2, p. 261.